Lost & Insecure, You Found Me
by InuNekoLexi
Summary: Haven't you wondered what it was that Alice forgot? What exactly was the "Darkness" that Alice Cullen lived prior to her change? This is a brief look into the life Mary Alice Brandon experienced before, during, and after her life in the Asylum where she was eventually killed and changed.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Twilight and the series' characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. The few characters I have introduced for my fanfic earn me no monetary value what so ever and hope she does not mind my imagined life for Alice that was merely referenced to in the first book of the Saga.

Author's Note: I originally posted this story on under the name "Die4TheDream". I am moving most of my stories over from the site, here as I am more active on these days. I hope you enjoy if you had not come across them before.  
**  
...**

It was towards the end of 1901 when the Brandon family welcomed their first child, a daughter, into the world. Though Edison's bulb had become a street lamp fixture, and a proud source of light in higher society houses, the birthing room was lit by gas lamps and a large fire that muggy August night in Mississippi. The sweat on Mrs. Brandon's brow had been there hours before she had gone into labor, beading and running off her forehead in rivulets as she panted, the contractions coming closer as her mid-wife busied around with water and blankets.

Screaming, Camille's fingers curled into the cloth beneath her, aid rushing to her side, "Breathe, Miss, breathe." The look Mrs. Brandon shot the mid-wife was one that disclosed her impoverished upbringing and uncouthly manner growling,

"Don't you tell me to breathe! I've-" Camille's retort was cut short by another wave of pain and she grasped the other woman's arm tightly, "Where's the damn Doctor!"

Alga's eyebrows shot up at her lady's cursing but if any woman was allowed to be excused for such an improper thing, now was the time and she tried to pull her arm away. "Don't you worry about him, mam' I've done this plenty. He's on his way in any case."

Nelson paced in the living room looking out the window every so often for the doctor's arrival. A half hour had passed since he had sent the neighbor's son to the man's home but he had yet to make an appearance and Mr. Brandon had long ago begun to worry. Perhaps the boy had not found him, perhaps he had injured himself out in the dark. Could it be possible the Doctor himself had taken ill, too ill to be called from his bed to help a patient. Certainly their mid-wife was capable enough but she held no degree….

Another scream came from behind the closed doors that held his wife from view, only now they did not stop, Alga's voice muffled by the sound.

Inside the room, Alga urged the mother on, motivating her to continue when Camille was on the verge of passing out from the pain. Practiced hands eased the babe from blooded thighs, pulling it from the waste that had accompanied the birth and the woman held the child up, chord still attached to show the weary woman her gift. "A girl!"

With a quick snip the woman tied the end of the umbilical cord closed with a string until it would fall off, washing the child with a damp sponge and swaddling her in cotton. Camille cradled her in shaky arms while Alga made quick work of the mess between her legs, pulling the sheet from beneath her bottom and tossing it into a basket. Dizzy, the new mother touched her daughter's soft cheek tenderly, not taking notice of the Doctor's arrival outside.

**...**

While the Brandon's had been surprised by their first child's arrival, their second was less of a joyous surprise, and the beginning of a disturbing chain of events that would surround Mary Alice for the duration of her life.

On Mary Alice's fourth birthday, Camille had invited her closest friends and their daughters, in order to have a society suitable party for her little girl. White stockings and the most affordably expensive dress the Brandon's could afford, Mary Alice had sat at the table, dark hair pulled into a bun and waited politely through the chorus of Happy Birthday the other dolled up boy's and girl's sang under the watchful eyes of their mothers. As the last verse faded, when she was meant to blow out her candles, Mary Alice simply looked to Camille to cut her cake.

Reaching out, Camille trailed her fingers over her young daughter's head sweeping a few strands from her face, "You're suppose to make a wish, sweetie."

Mary Alice shook her head, the thin strands of pearls her mother had placed in her hair catching the light, "I don't have anything to wish for, Mama."

Camille tilted her head, a small smile on her lips as she leaned down, "I'm sure you can think of something."

Mary Alice shook her head innocently, tiny hands in her lap, "No Mama, I wanted a sister and I don't have to wish for her now." Reaching, Mary Alice grasped a bit of material that covered Camille's unchanged stomach and smoothed her fingers there.

A few weeks later, when Camille took ill and suffered from dizzy spells her doctor gave her news of her ailment, a second pregnancy. Though the children that had been present at the party had long forgotten the incident and their own parents brushing Mary Alice's actions aside as child play, Mrs. Brandon became wary of her little girl's manner.

- - -

Nelson Brandon had earned a position as an Auditor with the Biloxi Bank, a respectable if not much appreciated job by the populace in the Mississippi town. It afforded his family of four with the makings of a good life though not a rich one, giving them the opportunity to enter their children in the town's only all girls' private school and still attend a few choice parties.

Mary Alice did not care for the private school, but did enjoy the parties the other girls would invite her to. Camille taught her oldest to appreciate the dressings of the society life and Mary Alice shined to her mother's plans for her to become a designer though the woman had not discussed this with her yet. Mary Alice shared this plan with her friends who told their mom's who scowled at Mrs. Brandon's early planning. When Camille heard talk of the other ladies disappointment in her expectations for her seven year old she confided in her husband her worry.

A busy man, Nelson had brushed the mention off. Surely Camille had talked with one of the women and they had reacted poorly before gossiping to the others.

- - -

In the third week of Mary Alice's 5th year at the school, the same time Cynthia was allowed in, the Brandon's eldest refused to go. With a solemn expression and folded arms, Mary Alice stood stubbornly in her bedroom doorway, still in her nightgown, "I'm not going to school!"

Exasperated, Camille had picked up Cynthia to have Mary Alice grab a hold of her hand begging her to stay, "You can't take her! She'll get the hair bugs!"

Sending her daughter back to her room, Mrs. Brandon took the other to school and was presented with a case of head-lice the next morning, an epidemic that had sprung up completely unexpectedly at the school. Unforeseen by everyone, but Mary Alice.

The older Mary Alice became, the more she became aware of around town; storms, fires, robberies, deaths - all came and went as she predicted. The Brandon's pulled their daughter's from the private school when Mary Alice turned 13 and began home schooling the both of them. A rift grew between the girls, Cynthia sensing her sister's differences and Mrs. Brandon doing nothing to change her mind. Mary Alice began to write her dreams down to keep from talking about them and for a while her parents were fooled into thinking she was alright but when her father had stayed out late one night Mary Alice could not keep from speaking about a particular vision she had at dinner.

Camille had had enough of her daughter's strange behavior and bold face lies as her husband had denied the affair. Together fearing for their family's name they began to spread rumors around town, their eldest was not well they town their friends. They would be taking her to another doctor out of state, a specialist. Hopefully things would look up but….


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Twilight and the series' characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. The few characters I have introduced for my fanfic earn me no monetary value what so ever and hope she does not mind my imagined life for Alice that was merely referenced to in the first book of the Saga.

Author's Note: I originally posted this story on under the name "Die4TheDream". I am moving most of my stories over from the site, here as I am more active on these days. I hope you enjoy if you had not come across them before.

**…**

Cold food, freezing showers and scratchy clothes, Mary Alice lost a dramatic amount of her spunk inside the Asylum walls. If not for her kind, if strange, doctor and few other ill placed patients, she may have lost herself all together.

Kept in solitary at the very mention of a vision, Mary Alice spent the majority of her time alone. At least she was no longer administered shock therapy - a treatment the neighboring girl received more often as the weeks past. Standing as close she could to the door without being seen from the window, Mary Alice waited for the approaching footsteps that would announce the girl's return. It did not take long.

Two sets of footfalls and the distinct sound of dragging made the orderlies approach known and dark brown eyes peered through the glass in concern. In the hallway a woman was being 'aided' to her room, an arm in each of the men's who pulled her along like a ragdoll towards her cell. Head bowed down, her hair fell in greasy tresses of an undeterminable color in her face. Mary Alice chewed her lip worriedly; the girl did not make a sound as she was tossed in her room and out of her sight.

So anxious to see the other girl, Mary Alice had not noticed the doctor following the group down the hall, no other footsteps had alerted her to the man's presence but there he was before her window. Possibly paler then the patients, Dr. Langley had a piercing set of eyes that often looked onyx in the dim lighting provided by the mental hospital. Mary Alice use to see him with red eyes and fangs in her visions, a sight that had made her scared of him in the beginning, but as it never crossed into truth she had pushed it to the back of her mind. Now again as he stared at her she could see it once more, this time the vision accompanied by something new.

_Dr. Langley held her in his arms, Mary Alice's body limp, his lips tinged in blood and his eyes ablaze. Her alabaster skin looked ashen, dead, and her eyes closed. Time passed and in her mind's eye she saw herself alive a new, her eyes a matching red and her body glimmering in candle light. She would be no mere mortal for much longer._

Mary Alice stepped away from the door, and the man that would change her future, quickly. Death would soon be upon her.

- - -  
A strange occurrence had been making its way through the asylum the past few nights. One by one orderlies, doctors, and patients had begun to go missing. At first it was thought a few of the orderlies had left on their own, other doctors dismissing the patients absence as an 'accident' in the electro-therapy room that another doctor had not wanted to cop to. But when the physicians began disappearing everyone had become guarded. Only Mary Alice knew the truth, and she was frightened.

Forming a plan, Mary Alice had decided it was time to make her escape. Though the likely hood of her getting away was slim, even with her sight, she knew she had to try. With that in mind she had waited, cementing her plan and biding her time, all but about to go through with it when another vision assaulted her at her door.

_Standing in the hallway, Mary Alice stood over one of the orderly's bodies with Rebecca at her side breathing hard. They looked to one another before taking off down the hall._

Mary Alice closed her eyes. She had not thought of Rebecca, so weak on her return trips from electro shock therapy. But perhaps... But why did she see that now? Was Rebecca planning an escape as well? One that would aid her as well? Mary Alice stood from her cot and walked to the door, peering out the window towards the other girl's cell in the dark. Two bright eyes met hers, looking back, as if having sent her the vision and wanting conformation.

Feeling less sane by the minute Mary Alice debated briefly before nodding her head. They would escape together. Turning away from her own window, Rebecca sat down on her cot in her own cell and let out a deep breath, tired from the strain it had taken on her mind.

…

Mary Alice figured it had been seven months since she had first been left in the asylum by her family, she did not plan to make it to eight. Mary Alice planned that within the next week, whenever Rebecca was taken for shock therapy, they would put their plan in motion. It could be no later than that, Mary Alice knew, because her vision of Dr. Langley and herself was becoming more and more concrete.

"Time for your bath, Mary Alice," the woman who spoke was in her mid 30's, behind her stood the younger man who use to take her for her bath's before Dr. Langley became her physician. While he was still present to make sure Mary Alice did not try anything, it was the woman who helped her in and out from the tub, an act though still shameful to Mary was much less degrading then to be naked in front of the male orderly.

Stepping into the cold water, Mary Alice shivered, eyes closing to block the feeling. If she could just imagine being somewhere else... A tight breath escaped her lips as her skin broke out into thousands of goose pimples, "Oh..."

The female orderly waited through Mary Alice's given time for her bath, it was longer than many of the other patients, and a privilege handed down by Dr. Langley. The elder woman looked at the girl in the tub, studying her slim shoulders and pixie featured face, it was obvious the man's attraction to her but the orderly did not approve in the least. Such an abuse of power if he were to act on it...

Miss Brandon stood still as the orderly wrapped her up in the towel, clothing herself on autopilot as she noticed several things in the room. Several tubs towards the back of the room were crushed in, not dented or marked up but crushed, the walls behind them bearing broken tiles. It was strange to see, mainly because only a few days ago they had been perfectly fine, but what alarmed Mary Alice were the red flecks that dotted the floor, disappearing into the closet. Mary opened her mouth to speak, to point out her findings to the orderly but thought better of it, she would not be here much longer, and it would not do well to draw attention to her with an investigation.

Rebecca could not sleep that night, lying back on her cot her eyes were hooded, lids down pretending to sleep as the last of the night checks went around before sitting back up when the lights were turned off. The dirty blonde did not know of Alice's exact plans for the both of them, but she knew she would have to be the one to start things. Rebecca would have to be out of her room in order to make sure that Alice could get free of her own cell, and the only way they would be getting out was...

Becca closed her eyes trying to concentrate before the orderly was too far away. At the end of the hall the young man swung his flashlight in through the last window, peering inside and checking on the patient he stepped back, checking off the time next to the patients name before heading back down the hall slowing as he approached Rebecca and Alice's doors.

Rebecca heard him stop, her fingers gripping her hands together, nose pressed into the back of her thumbs talking under her breath. The orderly frowned seeing her figure sitting up through the glass and pulled his flashlight out, tapping the glass, "Lie down."

Rebecca stayed seated, jaw still clenched but her teeth no longer gritted. She did not move.

The orderly's lips pressed together in a thin line, "I said lie down!" The man reached for his keys and Mary Alice woke in her own room, becoming aware of the commotion.

Unfortunately, the patients on that floor where not the only ones who heard things start up.

The orderly was sprawled on the floor, Rebecca breathing hard, flashlight in hand as she snatched the keys from his belt. From her own door, Mary Alice watched her through the window, eyes bright with anxiety. They had to be quick.

Mary Alice's door swung open the same time as the sound of grating metal split up the stairway at the front end of the hall. Something was coming.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Twilight and the series' characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. The few characters I have introduced for my fanfic earn me no monetary value what so ever and hope she does not mind my imagined life for Alice that was merely referenced to in the first book of the Saga.

Author's Note : The chapter following this one, will be the last in this series that I am transferring from my Die4TheDream Quizilla account. As I stated in the summary, this was a very brief look into the Mary Alice Brandon's "Darkness".  
**…**

In the time it took for Rebecca to grab Mary Alice's hand, the psychic had already seen what was coming for them, and she shuddered, taking off with the other girl as fast as their feet would allow for the opposite side of the hall.

Running past barred windows, other cells and towards the showering room, Mary Alice knew their chance of escape was unlikely. They had waited too long, too many nights wasted in preparing themselves would leave them open to the attack of the true killer that had been haunting the asylum lately. Though she had not seen it specifically in her head, Mary Alice had always thought it to be Dr. Langley...

The stairway door burst open just as they rounded out of sight and Mary Alice closed her eyes as another vision assaulted her.

_Passed out on the floor, the orderly lay helpless to defend himself as the blonde man bent over his body, wild red eyes hungrily roving over his body before they concentrated on a small dot of liquid that pooled under the orderly's head. The monster licked dry lips before opening his mouth, darting forward like a snake._

When Alice came to she was still running with Rebecca, the other patient refusing to let Mary slow her down but unwilling to leave her behind. Making sure to touch as little as she could as they ran, Rebecca pushed the exiting door open from the shower that lead down the back stairs to the lower floor.

The lighting was dim along the stairs but it was a narrow path and Becca and Mary's footing where sure of themselves. Rebecca yanked the door open at the bottom of the staircase then locked it behind the both of them. Mary Alice did not bother to tell her it would not help.

The lights along this hall had been turned off; only the moonlight that streamed between bars let them see their way. Even on a decent day the asylum spooked the patients, in the middle of the night running from a killer while trying to make your escape from the mental institution? Mary Alice felt she would be back in no time.

Rebecca's fingers tightened around Mary Alice's, pale skin covered in goose pimples, a small gasp parting her lips. Mary Alice's eyes widened as she looked forward.

As if having materialized from thin air, Dr. Langley stood in the middle of the hallway, a grim expression on his face. Mary Alice's heart began to race, her body screaming this was it even as she felt Rebecca coil in preparation.

The man did not move but was suddenly in front of them, dark eyes empty looking down at the both of them, "I'm sorry," was all he said before the doctor's palm slammed into Rebecca's chest sending her flying into the wall. Mary Alice was yanked into his arms in the same instant as Langley murmured, "You are too important to lose."

Rebecca's body was crumpled against the wall, her left arm at an odd angle down her side but by the groan she made she was still conscious. It was the last thing Mary Alice saw before pain erupted throughout her body, starting from the point along her neck where Dr. Langley had bent to kiss.

**…**

Pain, it coursed through her veins like wildfire, burning her body from the inside out, charring Alice's organs and singeing her skin. If the prone figure could move she would but she was restrained on all sides. Opening her eyes in hope to shed some light on her predicament the young woman was met with only darkness. Another wave of agony ripped through her and she whimpered, left to suffer alone.

- - -

The blonde vampire stood over the other immortal's remains, the doctor's shirt and jacket catching the blood in red pools as it coagulated from the pearly granite limbs that twitched and shifted, trying to piece itself together. James stomped down on the hand that attempted to drag itself back to its arm and began to sift through the pieces, collecting the largest first then coming back for the smaller.

The hunter snarled, it's angry call heard for a mile around as he let loose his frustration at having lost his prey. The doctor's demise did nothing to appease his lust for the spritely patient's death but he knew it was too late. Before he had killed the elder vampire he knew he had bitten her, the sweet tangy scent had been all around him of a fresh feed and it had thrown the tracker into a rage. Taking off he tried to outrun his private defeat.

- - -

Inside the asylum, nurses and orderlies had filled the halls, shocked by the sight of the corpses that were strewn about on several floors. All that had been out making their rounds had been murdered, the only survivor one of their patients - a bloodied mess of a girl who was still crumpled oddly against the wall by one of the doorways. Becca's injuries were severe and they rushed her to the Hospice center, all the while unaware that the girl under their care was changing... becoming the very thing that had turned on their fellow caretakers.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Twilight and the series' characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. The few characters I have introduced for my fanfic earn me no monetary value what so ever and hope she does not mind my imagined life for Alice that was merely referenced to in the first book of the Saga.

Author's Note: In the last chapter, you probably had questions about the absence of certain scenes. I will answer them in the sequel which will be posted at a much slower rate than this because while I was transferring this over, and taking the time to edit, I was struck by the need to write more. So be sure to tag me for Following the Author, and keep an eye out for the Title, "You Found Me, Just A Little Late". Also, I would appreciate any questions you might have (that I might not think to address on my own) to be posted in the review. I'll try to fit them in as well for the following story.

Also, the section before 1948 may feel out of place because I realized this was not long enough to be considered a "chapter" by 's qualifications so it was added in.

**…  
**  
In the beginning, there was nothing – nothing to see, nothing to taste, nothing to feel. There was only a _lack_ of the fire, of the flames and the burn that had scorched her insides for hours, days, _weeks. _For the girl alone in the darkness there was no way to tell how much time had passed or where she was. All she knew was she was thirsty, unbearably and undeniably thirsty. Of all the senses she possessed the only one at her disposal seemed to be her hearing and while she must be closed off from the world by concrete, the sound of fluttering, a steady beat caught her attention the best and the burning returned, this time only a dry heat that required immediate attention at her throat.

Moving before she had addressed the need to find the source of that sound, she was outside, the crumbling pieces of tomb falling to the ground behind her, dust clinging to the starch of her clothing. Things were too bright, the sun's illuminating rays too much for her sensitive and light deprived eyes. After the time in, she turned back to stare at the mausoleum, the outside world was horribly detailed. The young woman took stock of herself, hands running over the uncomfortable texture of her long gown.

Glittering in the daylight, the fawn haired beauty was distracted with her own skin's appearance, standing so still that she would be thought an apparition by a passerby. It was not until the incredibly loud, if only to her new founds ears, skittering of clawed feet caught her attention, the hum of a heart beat reminding her of her need to satiate her thirst. Again, before she had finished thinking that she _wanted_ she had in her grasp the very animal that would be her first of many meals.

**…**

The 1920s suited the pixie's short hair, and angular heart shaped features, Alice dressing herself in the clothes of one of her victims. The amnesiac newborn had found her only clue as to her identity, bloodstained and falling apart on the tag along the bracelet at her wrist after her first kill, a badger. The deaths that had followed; a cat, several birds and smaller rodents had been disgusting to her taste until they were washed away by the sweet, sweet nectar of the couple that had been unlucky enough to cross her path.

She had acted without thought, purely on instinct, and once their bodies had lain side by side on the gravel road of the cemetery she had felt, remorse for their deaths but another thought had flickered at the back of her mind. The woman's body was clothed in formal, but flattering, layers of cotton, the texture much more pleasing than what Alice wore herself and slipping into them, though they were looser on her spritely frame, she felt better.

The sound of tires on gravel further down the road alerted her to the fact others were coming into the cemetery. Hunger flared anew and staring in the direction the newcomers would be approaching from she felt a moment's hesitation before turning away. As soon as she had fled the cemetery, she was frozen in place by the most debilitating loss of sight and then the feeling of being thrown forward, her bright red eyes losing their focus…

1948

Every day for the past week Alice had come to the diner and waited, sitting at the counter on one the turn style stools, her hands between her thighs and her eyes on the door. Five nights had come and gone, the stormy weather she had seen her future partner traveling in holding strong above the Philly skyline. It would be today, the tingle along her skin - the electricity that made her hair stand on end; she sensed it would be tonight.

As the door opened Alice was overcome with pleasure - it was him.

Water clung to his hair, glistening like diamonds - the only shimmer the surrounding humans would be able to notice. His eyes were dark with thirst, the last of red around the edges of his irises and his jaw was clenched tight as the other vampire's gaze fell on her.

Hopping off her perch, Alice approached the young man with a smile - warmth radiating from her cold body as she stepped up towards him, "You've kept me waiting a long time."

A pause, so brief no one would notice, passed between them as the man swallowed his confusion and ducked his head, "I'm sorry, ma'am."

Accepting his apology, Alice held out her hand, thin fingers waiting for his broader violinist's touch. As their skin connected Alice felt herself melt against his touch and their future sprawled out before her.


End file.
